The very first divergence from the absolute truth is in the more or less common acceptance of or compromise between the dual accounts of the creation of man in the first and second chapters of Genesis respectively, and the alertness of the metaphysician is needed to penetrate and expose the subtle illusion under which the world thoughtlessly labors, due to its blind submission to the supposedly binding laws arising therefrom.
The two accounts differ to just this extent: that the first accounts for man as the spiritual creation in God's image, embodying the consequent completeness of the male and female qualities, the whole and consummate expression of God's being; while the second account portrays a material man formed "of the dust of the ground," lonesome and incomplete, necessitating the creation of a second or correlative, a woman, unto whom the man should cleave for his support and completion. The acceptance to any extent of the latter account is the building of false laws that attempt to depreciate the creation of God's man in His image and require the association of two to complete the sonship or whole creation. Right here begins the false reasoning of the incompleteness of man and the necessity for something from without to satisfy, all of which leads through these false steps to the supposititious dependence on matter, the belief in the perpetuation of this material fortitude in fear of extinction, and innumerable other false laws which become greatly involved and depend for their furtherance solely on the world's unthinking acceptance of time-honored theories.
Man as the perfect expression of God's being, as man essentially is, reflects perfectly, simultaneously, and eternally every quality of God's being. The qualities of God are not divided among men, nor among men and women, a purely human and illusory distinction, and all the conjectures and human laws purporting to make distinctions in the creation of God are absolutely valueless and ineffective, their only power being their blind acceptance by mankind. Christian Scientists are taught to demonstrate their inheritance of every good and perfect quality whether the world stamps it masculine or feminine. There is every reason for considering God the source of every good quality, and the same consequent reason for knowing and proving man's birthright as the expression of all the divine qualities. Mrs. Eddy gives a very concise and demonstrably true statement on this point in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 268), where she says, "Look long enough, and you see male and female one—sex or gender eliminated; you see the designation man meaning woman as well, and you see the whole universe included in one infinite Mind and reflected in the intelligent compound idea, image or likeness, called man, showing forth the infinite divine Principle, Love, called God,—man wedded to the Lamb, pledged to innocence, purity, perfection."
